Music suggestions needed

[bbodb1]

With full credit to the Blues Brothers thread for making me think along this line (because I play the theme from Rawhide often...) I work at a public school and every morning I do car drop off. Essentially I welcome kids who arrive by car in the morning. Since I started at this school (11 years ago), I've made sure to play a wide variety of music with one very important proviso - I will play NO music made AFTER 1986!

I always start every year with plenty of selections from the Beatles but I will play just about anything - big band, swing, opera, country / western, classic rock. I've sent kids screaming into the doors with Hank Williams, had them give stares of disbelief to Pavarotti, and have no idea of this thing we called MoTown back in the day. Anything is fair game as long as it is suitable for younger ears.

So here is my question to you - please give me some suggestions for possible material - what artist / song would you play?

When I have a bit more time this week, I post a better overview of more of the current playlist but I wanted to get the ball rolling on this.

Ideas please!

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

Gosh - so many options. Here are a few I would throw out, focusing on things they have probably never heard before and that might catch their attention:

• Riot in Cell Block #9 - The Coasters
• Respect Yourself - The Staple Singers
• Lift Your Leg - Chris Gaffney
• Flirtibird - Duke Ellington
• T.S.O.P. (The Sound of Philadelphia) - M.F.S.B.
• I Second that Emotion - Smokey Robinson
• B-A-B-Y - Carla Thomas
• Trouble in Mind - Nina Simone
• Compared to What - Les McCann and Eddie Harris (as long as a goddammit won't get you in trouble. If so, substitute "You've Got It in Your Soulness" from the same Montreux session).
• Hootie Blues - Jay McShann
• Before You Accuse Me - Bo Diddley
• Change is Gonna Come - Otis Redding
• Straight, No Chaser - Thelonius Monk
• Chain of Fools - Aretha
• Champagne Taste - Eartha Kitt
• Grandma's Hands - Bill Withers
• Ubangi Stomp - Warren Smith
• Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic - Isaac Hayes
• Don't Be Cruel - Elvis Presley
  
• Changing Neighborhoods - Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets
• Quarter to Three - Chubby Checker

 

[artringwald]

Here's some they may have never heard:

King Tut - Steve Martin
The Purple People Eater - Sheb Wooley
Pollution - Tom Lehrer
My Walking Stick - Leon Redbone
Cover of the Rolling Stone - Dr. Hook
Killed by a Coconut - Bob Gibson
King of the Road - Roger Miller
Joy To The World - Three Dog Night
Circle Game - Joni Mitchell
City of New Orleans - Arlo Guthrie
Tornado Time in Texas - Guy Clark
Charlie Dunn - Jerry Jeff Walker
Rock Island Line - Lead Belly
New York, New York - Frank Sinatra
Buckets of Rain - Bob Dylan
Barbara Ann - Beach Boys
Moonshadow - Cat Stevens
Tennessee Stud - The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

How are you going to get all the songs you want? YouTube?

 

[sun starved Gayle]

I assume this is a grade school?


It’s a beautiful morning- The Young Rascals
Walkin’ on Sunshine- Kristina and the Waves
Little Martha- The Allman Brothers
Star Spangled Banner-Jimi Hendrix version
Theme from “Bonanza”
Rockin’ Robin- the 50’s group version
Be true to your school- Beach Boys
Chattanooga Choo Choo-Glen Miller
William Tell Overture
Glad All Over- Dave Clark Five
Born in the USA- Bruce Springsteen
Joy to The World-Three Dog Night
Mama’s Don’t let you Babies grow up to be cowboys-Willie Nelson

 

[MULTIZ321]

Want additional inspiration - check out this Music Thread by Tug's Music Guru - Facebook Song of the Day.

https://www.tugbbs.com/forums/index.php?threads/facebook-song-of-the-day.105622/


Richard

 

[Gypsy65]

We ride.
Currently own 2 Indians, 1 Harley and this is one of my favorites when out riding

Black Betty

 

[Rolltydr]

With full credit to the Blues Brothers thread for making me think along this line (because I play the theme from Rawhide often...) I work at a public school and every morning I do car drop off. Essentially I welcome kids who arrive by car in the morning. Since I started at this school (11 years ago), I've made sure to play a wide variety of music with one very important proviso - I will play NO music made AFTER 1986!

I always start every year with plenty of selections from the Beatles but I will play just about anything - big band, swing, opera, country / western, classic rock. I've sent kids screaming into the doors with Hank Williams, had them give stares of disbelief to Pavarotti, and have no idea of this thing we called MoTown back in the day. Anything is fair game as long as it is suitable for younger ears.

So here is my question to you - please give me some suggestions for possible material - what artist / song would you play?

When I have a bit more time this week, I post a better overview of more of the current playlist but I wanted to get the ball rolling on this.

Ideas please!

I haven’t completely read through all the lists so I apologize for any duplicates:

Zager and Evans - In the Year 2525
John Lennon - Instant Karma
Blood, Sweat & Tears - Hi-De-Ho
Three Dog Night - Black and White
The James Gang - Walk Away
Linda Ronstadt - Love is a Rose
Janis Joplin - Mercedes Benz
Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
The Cyrkle - Red Rubber Ball
Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Benny the Bouncer
And of course,
The Doors - The End

I tried to throw in a few obscure ones that I have really enjoyed over the years as well as some that kids might find fun.

Long live rock n roll!




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[DaveNV]

Thinking about it being a school, car drop offs, and with a slight nod toward education, and you want it to be memorable, there are sooo many choices!

Anything early-ish (and some later) Aretha Franklin:
- Respect
- Chain of Fools
- Think (speaking of the Blues Brothers...)
- Pink Cadillac (Freeway of Love)

Crosby, Stills and Nash:
- Suite Judy Blue Eyes
- Wooden Ships
- Our House (after Neil Young joined them)

Procol Harum:
- White Room

Anything ABBA:
- Dancing Queen
- Fernando
- Gimme Gimme Gimme

Anything Heart:
- Dreamboat Annie
- Barracuda

The Doors:
- Light My Fire
- Riders on the Storm

Iron Butterfly:
- Inagaddadavida

Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac, Journey, REO Speedwagon, Anything Disco (if you dare)

Anything from the late sixties/early 70s Top 40:
- Donnie & Marie (A Little Bit Country, Paper Roses, Puppy Love)
- Jackson Five, or Michael solo (I Want You Back, ABC, Ben, anything from Thriller)
- The Partridge Family (I Think I Love You)
- The Cowsills (Hair, Indian Lake, The Rain The Park And Other Things)
- Ray Stevens (The Streak comes to mind)
- Jim Stafford (Spiders and Snakes)
- Bobbie Gentry (Ode to Billie Joe)
- Sonny & Cher, or Cher solo (The Beat Goes On, You Better Sit Down Kids, Dark Lady)

And for some reason, I can't stop thinking of Flatt & Scruggs doing Foggy Mountain Breakdown
or Dueling Banjos from Deliverance.

Send me the play list when you sort things out. I'm doing a road trip soon, and these all sound like fun.

Dave

 

[Wyominguy]

If you want to send them in the door screaming play an endless loop of Disney’s “It’s a Small World”. It would make me scream.

Neil

 

[wackymother]

I support all the American and European music that's been suggested, but I also love Bollywood movies. Here's a fun playlist. Some are older than your cutoff.

https://music.amazon.com/albums/B076XYFHBH?trackAsin=B076Y95GVY&do=play

I just realized that Track 18 is "Let's Twist Again" in Hindi! You could play it with the original version!

 

[Ralph Sir Edward]

As for education . . Satchmo!

Strutting with some B-B-Q
Mack the Knife
Hello Dolly
and
Wonderful World.

Others.

Girl From Impanema (Bossa Nova)
Wayward Wind - Gogi Grant
Everybody's Talkin' At Me - Harry Nillson
Day Dream Believer - The Monkees
Year Of The Cat - Al Stewart

and to rock their ears off. . .
Montrose - Good Rockin' Tonight.

 

[Ralph Sir Edward]

And Holtz' The Planets Jupiter theme (for that Classical fix. . .)

And Roll Over Beethoven - Pick you favorite version. ( Mine is the ELO version - but Chuck did it first!)

 

[Rolltydr]

As for education . . Satchmo!

Strutting with some B-B-Q
Mack the Knife
Hello Dolly
and
Wonderful World.

Others.

Girl From Impanema (Bossa Nova)
Wayward Wind - Gogi Grant
Everybody's Talkin' At Me - Harry Nillson
Day Dream Believer - The Monkees
Year Of The Cat - Al Stewart

and to rock their ears off. . .
Montrose - Good Rockin' Tonight.

Love the Harry Nillson! Good call.

 

[bbodb1]

Outstanding suggestions by everyone in this thread to date - thank you all for your input!

Just to paint a more complete picture, at car drop off (which occurs here from 7:30 - 8:00 a.m. each school day) I try to have something playing at all times. I'm not sure exactly why I started doing this but I do recall research suggesting the benefits of music with respect to the learning process. I've also used music in my computer lab (I teach 2nd, 3rd, 4th grade computer lab) as keyboarding practice and as an introduction to writing (and writing on the computer). But as much as anything else, music has the power to make me forget other troubles and hopefully it might for the students as well.

i usually have a theme for a day's listening. Usually it is an artist but sometimes it can be around an idea. For example, I have a 'Soothing' mix I use that has songs such as:

• Blue Bayou - Linda Rondstadt
• Southern Cross - Crosby, Stills and Nash
• Carolina on my Mind - James Taylor
• Your Smiling Face - James Taylor
• Rocky Mountain High - John Denver

I have several artist collections - Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Rush, Eagles, Rolling Stones, Van Halen, Chicago, Phil Collins / Genesis, Johnny Cash, Cars, Bob Seger and so on.

I also have a MoTown collection (not so broad just yet) that includes Barry White, The Spinners, Arthea Franklin, The O'Jays, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and Tina Turner.

Country is always well represented with Alan Jackson, Hank Williams, Sr., Willie Nelson, Randy Travis, and George Strait.

I've also played Pavorotti as well - 'O Sole Mio (the version with Bryan Adams) is magical. Nessun Dorma too. Some Wagner (Ride of the Valkyries is familiar to a lot of boys due to its use in video games apparently), and several pieces from the London Symphony Orchestra...including one very familiar to all kids (and adults) of all ages....

I most definitely love to play Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World. In fact, I have toyed with the idea of using that song as at the basis for 4th graders to write about the imagery they 'see' in this song on the computer.

You can hopefully see where I'm going here - and to answer a question from earlier, I use (mostly) Amazon Music (when they don't make me mad and drop -another- song behind a 2nd paywall - ) but will jump over to You Tube as well. I'll likely take advantage of the the next $0.99 per month deal on Amazon Music to unlock a bunch more songs but it still irks me to pay Amazon any more money (above what I already pay to subscribe).

Thanks again to all who have taken their time to offer their ideas - you're helping to make mornings much more interesting. I wish I could capture some of the looks on kids (and parents and grandparents) faces!

 

[bbodb1]

@DaveNW - You mentioned ABBA above and I have to share this story - ABBA was one of the first artists I played as I started this. I cannot tell you how many moms and Grandmas were singing along just after the car door opened! There is something so soothing and melodic about ABBA songs - timeless and still good to this day.

Now if I could just get the kids to understand this....

I do know this - ABBA is playing tomorrow morning!

 

[bbodb1]

I haven’t completely read through all the lists so I apologize for any duplicates:

Zager and Evans - In the Year 2525
John Lennon - Instant Karma
Blood, Sweat & Tears - Hi-De-Ho
Three Dog Night - Black and White
The James Gang - Walk Away
Linda Ronstadt - Love is a Rose
Janis Joplin - Mercedes Benz
Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
The Cyrkle - Red Rubber Ball
Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Benny the Bouncer
And of course,
The Doors - The End

I tried to throw in a few obscure ones that I have really enjoyed over the years as well as some that kids might find fun.

Long live rock n roll!




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Yes - Rolltydr - and I should mention that I do have several Lynyrd Skynyrd songs as well... not all of them though!

Having said that, it does bring warmth to my heart that even before the recent movie, Bohemian Rhapsody was always a favorite of all ages.
Wayne's World! Wayne's World! Totally! Excellent!

 

[dioxide45]

I will play NO music made AFTER 1986!

What is wrong with music after 1986? There was some great rock music in the 90s (Bon Jovi, Slaughter) and some great pop music at the turn of the millennium (Jewel, Third Eye Blind, Alanis Morissette). Is it just a stubbornness issue?

 

[Rolltydr]

Outstanding suggestions by everyone in this thread to date - thank you all for your input!

Just to paint a more complete picture, at car drop off (which occurs here from 7:30 - 8:00 a.m. each school day) I try to have something playing at all times. I'm not sure exactly why I started doing this but I do recall research suggesting the benefits of music with respect to the learning process. I've also used music in my computer lab (I teach 2nd, 3rd, 4th grade computer lab) as keyboarding practice and as an introduction to writing (and writing on the computer). But as much as anything else, music has the power to make me forget other troubles and hopefully it might for the students as well.

i usually have a theme for a day's listening. Usually it is an artist but sometimes it can be around an idea. For example, I have a 'Soothing' mix I use that has songs such as:

• Blue Bayou - Linda Rondstadt
• Southern Cross - Crosby, Stills and Nash
• Carolina on my Mind - James Taylor
• Your Smiling Face - James Taylor
• Rocky Mountain High - John Denver

I have several artist collections - Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Rush, Eagles, Rolling Stones, Van Halen, Chicago, Phil Collins / Genesis, Johnny Cash, Cars, Bob Seger and so on.

I also have a MoTown collection (not so broad just yet) that includes Barry White, The Spinners, Arthea Franklin, The O'Jays, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and Tina Turner.

Country is always well represented with Alan Jackson, Hank Williams, Sr., Willie Nelson, Randy Travis, and George Strait.

I've also played Pavorotti as well - 'O Sole Mio (the version with Bryan Adams) is magical. Nessun Dorma too. Some Wagner (Ride of the Valkyries is familiar to a lot of boys due to its use in video games apparently), and several pieces from the London Symphony Orchestra...including one very familiar to all kids (and adults) of all ages....

I most definitely love to play Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World. In fact, I have toyed with the idea of using that song as at the basis for 4th graders to write about the imagery they 'see' in this song on the computer.

You can hopefully see where I'm going here - and to answer a question from earlier, I use (mostly) Amazon Music (when they don't make me mad and drop -another- song behind a 2nd paywall - ) but will jump over to You Tube as well. I'll likely take advantage of the the next $0.99 per month deal on Amazon Music to unlock a bunch more songs but it still irks me to pay Amazon any more money (above what I already pay to subscribe).

Thanks again to all who have taken their time to offer their ideas - you're helping to make mornings much more interesting. I wish I could capture some of the looks on kids (and parents and grandparents) faces!

I love what you’re doing for, and with, these kids. Music is just a great medium for bringing us all together. As many people my age (64), I’m a huge Beatles fan and I still listen to them a great deal. Thank you Sirius/XM! And my daughter, who was born 14 years after they broke up, is just as big a Beatles fan as I am. We both love all kinds of music and enjoy introducing each other to new artists and songs.

I really enjoyed this thread. And as luck would have it, I heard another old song today that should be added to your list and I think the kids will love it:

The Coasters - Three Cool Cats




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Quilter]

Beethoven’s 5th
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
Bolero

 

[Gypsy65]

Might want to wait for the last day but maybe
Alice Cooper. Schools Out

 

[Glynda]

You all have me going down memory lane with these suggestions! What a great idea this is for the kids and their parents! Kudos to you! I would add some Louisiana blues from
Maria Muldair. When my granddaughter was a toddler, I always had Muldair’s Swinging in the Rain CD playing in the car. We particularly loved her bluesy “Three Little Fishies.” I still listen to it sometimes in the car alone. I see online that she has two more for children now that I am not familiar with. Perhaps one is more tuned to your kids’ age group. I’d add Marcia Ball (La Ti Da comes to mind), some non-voodoo and clean Dr John. Love his Going Back to New Orleans CD.

 

[Ralph Sir Edward]

bbodb1, correct me if I'm wrong, but you also are using this to show different types of music to those who have never heard them before, as well as starting their day.

In that spirit, here are some more suggestions.

Take Me Back To Tulsa. - Bob Wills and The Texas Playboys.
Park Avenue Walk - (The Theme song from Perry Mason)
Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy From Company B - The Andrew Sisters

 

[Ralph Sir Edward]

And I might add to your MoTown collection some Fifth Dimension - Up Up And Away, Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In, Working On A Groovy Thing, and Save The Country.

 

[Gypsy65]

Jerry Doucette
Mama let him play

This is not one I would use. But couldn’t resist

 

[wackymother]

Zydeco!